tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29249867722961865152018-03-12T03:57:18.662-07:00SmitroversePeriodic updates from poet and writer J.D. SmithJ.D. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12872696837674464350noreply@blogger.comBlogger106125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924986772296186515.post-80294503221406066082013-02-26T13:57:00.001-08:002013-02-26T13:57:24.520-08:00The Final CountdownSome jokes stick with you for a lifetime.&nbsp;Maybe they shouldn't, but they do. <br /><br />This is especially true for one's <span style="background-color: white;">first </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta-joke" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: white; color: blue;">meta-joke</span></a><span style="background-color: white;">&nbsp;or</span> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-humor" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">anti-joke</span></a>.&nbsp;(I'll leave the classification to experts.)<br /><br />For me, long before "<a href="http://anti-joke.com/anti-joke/popular/5061-how-many-surrealists-does-it-take-to-change-a-light-bulb-fish" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">How many surrealists does it take to change a lightulb?</span></a>--let alone <a href="http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Interrupting_cow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Interrupting Cow</span></a>--there came a simple exchange I've never forgotten.<br /><br />Guy One: How do you keep an [individual] in suspense?<br />Guy Two: I don't know. How?<br />Guy One: I'll tell you later. <br /><br />Today I am Guy&nbsp;Two, the joke at least temporarily being on me. This writer in general and entry-level humorist in particular is kept in suspense until March 1, when my collection <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Notes-Tourist-Planet-Earth-Collection/dp/098496441X" target="_blank"><em><span style="color: blue;">Notes of a Tourist on Planet Earth</span></em></a> is released. There will be more waiting for reviews and sales figures, but all of that flows from publication. <br /><br />And now I am down to "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Final_Countdown_(song)" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0b5394;">The Final Countdown</span></a>." Yes, I went there, referencing the cheesetastic single by Swedish band <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe_(band)" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Europe</span></a>.<br /><br />And what does an&nbsp;[individual] in suspense do? &nbsp;Recent experience suggests the following:<br /><ol><li>Concentrate poorly.</li><li>Sleep poorly and/or with stress dreams.</li><li>Turn every conversation with others, or train of thought while alone, to the book.</li><li>Check social media obsessively to see if anyone has read, liked, or passed along a book-related update.</li><li>Search the Internet at least as obsessively for references to the book. </li><li>Repeat steps 1-5.</li></ol>My dog is strangely unaffected by all of this. <br /><br />I don't what's coming next, but I suspect the waiting is the hardest part. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMyCa35_mOg" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Tom Petty had this figured out a long time ago</span></a>.<br /><br />Three days until the publication of <a href="http://www.powells.com/biblio/62-9780984964413-0" target="_blank"><em><span style="color: blue;">Notes of a Tourist on Planet Earth</span></em></a>.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />J.D. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12872696837674464350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924986772296186515.post-18214570951207595762013-02-24T18:48:00.000-08:002013-02-24T18:48:00.720-08:00It's Oh So Quiet<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It's_Oh_So_Quiet" target="_blank">It's oh so quiet. It's oh so still</a>.<br /><br />At least that's how it feels. On Friday, March 1 my humor collection <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/notes-of-a-tourist-on-planet-earth-jd-smith/1113106960?ean=9780984964413" target="_blank">Notes of a Tourist on Planet Earth</a>&nbsp;hits the streets, or whatever hard, nonporous surface a book is supposed to hit. People younger and likelier to wear sunglasses might call this the drop date.<br /><br />Still, no reviews have come out yet, and no interviews have so far been scheduled. The online sellers aren't showing any spike in sales yet.<br /><br />Oh me of little faith. Who is still learning about the business end of publishing.<br /><br />While I sit here wondering what's happening, others are making things happen. <a href="http://www.prbythebook.com/" target="_blank">PR by the Book</a>, the publicity firm contracted by publisher <a href="http://casspress.com/" target="_blank">Cassowary Press</a>, is working its own brand of magic, sending out &nbsp;press releases that explain why media outlets should be interested in <a href="http://www.powells.com/biblio/62-9780984964413-0" target="_blank">Notes of a Tourist on Planet Earth</a>. One example of their work appears on page 24 of <a href="http://issuu.com/prbythebook/docs/prbtb_experts_booklet_february2013" target="_blank">PR by the Book's February Experts Booklet</a>.<br /><br />Diamonds may or may not be a girl's best friend (a Y chromosome keeps me out of that discussion), but &nbsp;a specialized public relations firm may very well be an introverted writer's best friend, especially if that writer also has a day job.<br /><br />Soon the embargo will be lifted and copies will go out on shelves. There will be more waiting and learning. And then <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Book_Fair" target="_blank">the London Book Fair</a>.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />J.D. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12872696837674464350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924986772296186515.post-25514505215461454722013-02-11T15:41:00.002-08:002013-02-11T15:41:46.127-08:00The Next Big ThingMy generous friend and colleague Miles David Moore has tagged me to participate in the ongoing blog interview&nbsp; for authors, "The Next Big Thing." The interview asks ten questions about the writer's current project; Miles posted his answers <a href="http://www.scene4.com/milesdavidmoore/2013/02/the_next_big_thing_i_hope.html" target="_blank">at the link</a>&nbsp;on February 4. He asked to me post my answers one week later, which is today.&nbsp;I hope to be tagging at least one other writer this week for a February 18 post. <br /><br /><br />WHAT IS THE WORKING TITLE OF YOUR BOOK? <br /><br />The working title and the final title of my humor collection, to be published on March 1, is <em><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/notes-of-a-tourist-on-planet-earth-jd-smith/1113106960?ean=9780984964413" target="_blank">Notes of a Tourist on Planet Earth</a></em>. Since the book contains&nbsp;poetry, fiction, song&nbsp;parodies, essays and lists that deal with a wide range of subjects--from fashion to environmental issues and quite a bit in between--I had to&nbsp;find a title that encompassed as much as possible.<br /><br /><br />WHERE DID THE IDEA FOR YOUR BOOK COME FROM? <br /><br />Ideas came from many places. The day's news provides plenty to work with, as does advertising. The vanities and follies of the world, including my own, have given me a lot to work with.<br /><br /><br />WHAT GENRE DOES YOUR BOOK FALL UNDER?<br /><br /><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/notes-of-a-tourist-on-planet-earth-jd-smith/1113106960?ean=9780984964413" target="_blank"><em>Notes of a Tourist on Planet Earth</em></a>&nbsp;seems to fall under&nbsp;general or miscellaneous humor. That said, the tones of the individual pieces vary widely (and wildly).&nbsp;Some are innocently funny, while others are bawdy or biting. One piece even aspires to be a condensed update of Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal". <br /><br />WHICH ACTORS WOULD YOU CHOOSE TO PLAY YOUR CHARACTERS IN A MOVIE RENDITION?<br /><br />Quite a few characters appear in the book's stories and other pieces, so it could take me a long time to answer. I can see much of the material brought&nbsp;together in some framing tale starring Bill Murray and, as is the case with pie, there is always room for Gilbert Gottfried.&nbsp;Rights are available, and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4422858/" target="_blank">I am on IMDB</a>.<br /><br /><br />WHAT IS THE ONE-SENTENCE SYNOPSIS OF YOUR BOOK? <br /><br />Man tries to make sense of world, gives up and describes absurdity.<br /><br /><br />WILL YOUR BOOK BE SELF-PUBLISHED OR REPRESENTED BY AN AGENCY?<br /><br />The book will be published by Los Angeles start-up <a href="http://casspress.com/" target="_blank">Cassowary Press</a>. <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/notes-of-a-tourist-on-planet-earth-jd-smith/1113106960?ean=9780984964413" target="_blank"><em>Notes of a Tourist on Planet Earth</em></a>&nbsp;is the publisher's first title, and I am honored to be placed in that position. No agent represented the manuscript, but I did rely heavily on an attorney as the contract was drawn up. A specialized publicity firm is in the process of&nbsp;getting the word out to print and electronic media. <br /><br />HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU TO WRITE THE FIRST DRAFT OF YOUR MANUSCRIPT? <br /><br />Writing the individual pieces took place over about fifteen years. Imposing some kind of order on them took about four months.<br /><br />WHAT OTHER BOOKS WOULD YOU COMPARE THIS BOOK&nbsp;TO WITHIN ITS GENRE?<br /><br />The variety within <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/notes-of-a-tourist-on-planet-earth-jd-smith/1113106960?ean=9780984964413" target="_blank"><em>Notes of a Tourist on Planet Earth</em></a>, something like a magazine written entirely by one person, brings to mind <em>One Fell Soup</em> by Roy Blount, Jr. <br /><br />WHO OR WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO WRITE THIS BOOK? <br /><br />I had to write the pieces in the book to get them out of my head and make them someone else's, whether as a gift or a problem. <br /><br /><br />WHAT ELSE ABOUT YOUR&nbsp;BOOK MIGHT PIQUE A READER'S INTEREST? <br /><br />This is the only place&nbsp;to find a funny rendition of a seafood menu&nbsp;in the year 2050. Also, mimes are punched out.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />J.D. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12872696837674464350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924986772296186515.post-36192197902474130962013-02-07T15:06:00.003-08:002013-02-07T15:06:41.773-08:00Labor Day at Venice BeachBefore this blog goes all out in promoting <a href="http://jdsmithwriter.blogspot.com/2013/01/notes-of-tourist-planet-earth.html" target="_blank"><em>Notes of a Tourist on Planet Earth</em></a><em>, </em>I should take a moment to&nbsp;mention something that got lost in all the excitement of last autumn, something that for me caused part of that excitement.<br /><br />In a good way.<br /><br />The season marked the publication of my third collection of poetry, <a href="http://www.cherry-grove.com/smith-venice.html" target="_blank"><em>Labor Day at Venice Beach</em></a>. A <a href="http://jdsmithwriter.blogspot.com/2011/05/acceptance-of-third-poetry-collection.html" target="_blank">previous post&nbsp;mentions where some of the&nbsp;poems in the book originally appeared</a>. This is probably a good time to note as well that the collection's title poem, also its last and longest, is based on actual events at Venice Beach on Labor Day of 1998. (For full details you may have to buy the book.) <br /><br />I had the great good fortune of giving the debut reading at my first choice of venues, the <a href="http://www.beyondbaroque.org/" target="_blank">Beyond Baroque Literary/Arts Center</a>&nbsp;in Venice, California. Along with my wonderful wife Paula Van Lare, the audience included several poets who could&nbsp; easily have replaced me at the podium: <a href="http://www.ablemuse.com/v7/bio/kevin-durkin" target="_blank">Kevin Durkin</a>, <a href="http://www.lesliemonsour.com/" target="_blank">Leslie Monsour</a>, <a href="http://www.ablemusepress.com/2012-book-award-frank-osen" target="_blank">Frank Osen</a> and <a href="http://instructional1.calstatela.edu/tsteele/" target="_blank">Timothy Steele</a>, all of whom have shown me kindnesses too numerous to mention in this space.&nbsp;The audience also&nbsp;included&nbsp;debut author (and friend since the late 1970s)&nbsp;<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6894568.John_Sandrolini" target="_blank">John Sandrolini</a>,&nbsp;whose novel <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/One-Our-Baby-John-Sandrolini/dp/1453299335/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1360277131&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=one+for+our+baby" target="_blank">One for Our Baby</a></em> will be published in April by the legendary Otto Penzler's Mysterious Press. The&nbsp;reading was videotaped for the Beyond Baroque archives.<br /><br />As Don Marquis once noted, publishing a book of poetry is like throwing a rose petal into the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo. Which, of course, I am doing. No reviews have come out so far, and there is no guarantee that any review will be what I want to hear. Then again, as Hyman Roth told Michael Corleone, "This is the business we have chosen."<br /><br /><a href="http://www.cherry-grove.com/smith-venice.html" target="_blank">Labor Day at Venice Beach</a> is available from the bookstore at Beyond Baroque and from major online sellers, as well as some minor ones. It might find its place on a bookshelf near you.<br /><br /><br />J.D. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12872696837674464350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924986772296186515.post-9660998254409420772013-01-31T14:26:00.000-08:002013-01-31T19:21:32.498-08:00Notes of a Tourist on Planet Earth<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-25RpeLj8yvU/UQrmanPFW_I/AAAAAAAAAI0/LyLg6RbBiA4/s1600/Notes+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ea="true" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-25RpeLj8yvU/UQrmanPFW_I/AAAAAAAAAI0/LyLg6RbBiA4/s320/Notes+Cover.jpg" width="239" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif;">Sometimes a blog takes a little nap.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times;">And sometimes that little nap turns into a long nap, then a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hibernation" target="_blank">hibernation</a> that&nbsp;continues into the spring.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times;">And then it goes into a longer nap that lasts all summer, which is called <a href="http://library.thinkquest.org/TQ0312800/estivation.htm" target="_blank">estivation</a> if memory serves.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times;">And once in a while that&nbsp;nap will&nbsp;go all the way&nbsp;through the&nbsp;fall, though the word for that doesn't come to mind at the moment.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times;">Some regular readers of a blog, such as the blogger's father, might even start to wonder if that long slumber has turned into a <a href="http://www.wordreference.com/es/translation.asp?tranword=dirt%20nap" target="_blank">dirt nap</a>. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times;">But that is no longer a concern for this blog. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times;">Smitroverse is waking up (if perhaps groggily&nbsp;<a href="http://www.avwrites.com/?p=15" target="_blank">burying the lede</a>) for the March 1 publication of my first humor collection, <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/notes-of-a-tourist-on-planet-earth-jd-smith/1113106960" target="_blank">Notes of a Tourist on Planet Earth</a>, by <a href="http://casspress.com/" target="_blank">Cassowary Press</a>&nbsp;of Los Angeles. Both print and ebook editions are available for pre-order from the usual online seller suspects, and the print edition will be shelved&nbsp;at bookstores with a pulse and a sense of daring. (If you manage such a bookstore, please contact <a href="http://www.scbdistributors.com/index.shtml" target="_blank">SCB Distributors</a> to order.)</span><br /><br />In case you're wondering, <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/notes-of-a-tourist-on-planet-earth-jd-smith/1113106960" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Times;">Notes of a Tourist on Planet Earth</span></a>&nbsp;has a little bit of something for everyone: stories, poems, essays, song parodies, lists, a manifesto or two and even a&nbsp;canine resume. You can think of the collection as a whole magazine&nbsp;by a single&nbsp;author who is attempting to become the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Army_knife" target="_blank">Swiss Army knife</a>&nbsp;of American writing.<br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times;">In an upcoming post I'll say a little bit more about the book, the publisher and the publicity firm that will be getting the word out. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times;">For now, though, I would simply urge you to order <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/notes-of-a-tourist-on-planet-earth-jd-smith/1113106960" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Times;">Notes of a Tourist on Planet Earth</span></a>&nbsp;for the sake of my cash flow.&nbsp;My wife and I are remodeling both bathrooms this year, and I might be placing some rather large&nbsp;long-shot bets on <a href="http://animal.discovery.com/tv-shows/puppy-bowl" target="_blank">Puppy Bowl IX</a>. </span><br /><br /><br /><br />J.D. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12872696837674464350noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924986772296186515.post-83931401531310057522012-02-28T14:10:00.013-08:002012-02-28T15:17:12.765-08:00AWP 2012 in Chicago, or, Why Do We Do This?<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Hh32dLNifJM/T01bfns1e3I/AAAAAAAAAIU/-TVn-oV3uQo/s1600/WordTech%2BOffsite%2B2012.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5714324100994136946" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 247px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Hh32dLNifJM/T01bfns1e3I/AAAAAAAAAIU/-TVn-oV3uQo/s400/WordTech%2BOffsite%2B2012.jpg" border="0" /></a> <br /><div><br /><div><br /><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GfXv5zf8avw/T01R6ie4mtI/AAAAAAAAAHw/SZTfsnMAQYQ/s1600/WordTech%2BOffsite%2B2012.jpg"></a>This blog has been silent for a while, and generally for very positive reasons that I will mention in later posts, but that is not the matter at hand. </div><br /><br /><div></div><br /><div>More to the point, tomorrow I will be joining several thousand writerly types in one of the great annual rituals like the migration of Monarch butterflies or the spawning of horseshoe crabs in Delaware Bay.</div><br /><div></div><br /><br /><div>In other words, I will be attending this year's conference of the <a href="http://www.awpwriter.org/">Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP)</a> in Chicago, where I have lived and near where I grew up. </div><br /><div></div><br /><br /><div>With airfare and hotel paid for, and no-cage boarding arranged for Roo the Rescue Dog, the only question remaining is <em>Why am I doing this?</em> With plenty of company I can ask <em>Why Do We This?</em></div><br /><br /><p>It's not for the money. No one I know will be turning a profit. A few in academia may break even if their departments fund them, but such funds are increasingly hard to come by.</p><br /><p>Yet money is far from the only currency exchanged. Like other fine arts and some performing arts, writing depends on other economies. One is the prestige economy of publications and professional activity that may eventually turn to tenure and grants, though for relatively few. Even in these cases the amounts of money involved would seem bafflingly small to a financier circa 2006. Presenting papers and giving readings, though, can yield a slice of that small pie. Sometimes overlapping with the prestige economy is the gift economy of networking, favors exchanged and trading in books, journals and swag of usually modest dimensions; this serves as the framework for no small amount of conviviality. </p><br /><p>Even without a quid pro quo, more than a few genuinely enjoy advancing the professional and creative development of others and/or buying a broke graduate student a drink. The term for these feelings in economics is "warm glow altruism effects". </p><br /><p>While I took no action toward the proposals noted <a href="http://jdsmithwriter.blogspot.com/2011/02/awp-2011-and-ideas-for-awp-2012.html">in this space last year</a>, I will come in with a plan, as discussed in detail by several other bloggers. The centerpiece of mine will be the event shown in the flyer above, an offsite meet-and-greet (and signing) by poets affiliated with WordTech Communications, the publisher of my 2005 collection <a href="http://www.cherry-grove.com/smith.html"><span style="color:#6633ff;"><em>Settling for Beauty</em></span></a><em> </em>and my August 2012 collection <em><a href="http://jdsmithwriter.blogspot.com/search?q=labor+day+at+venice+beach"><span style="color:#000099;">Labor Day at Venice Beach</span></a></em>. With any luck I will also have the opportunity to visit the fine people of <a href="http://www.accents-publishing.com/">Accents Publishing</a> and <em><a href="http://www.americanbookreview.org/">American Book Review</a></em> (and that leaves 25 more letters to cover). I also hope to stop in with <a href="http://salmonpoetry.com/"><span style="color:#990000;">Salmon Poetry</span></a>, publisher of the anthology <em><a href="http://jdsmithwriter.blogspot.com/search?q=dogs+singing">Dogs Singing</a></em>, the proceeds of which go to two dog rescue organizations.</p><br /><p>Another distinct pleasure will be attending a few readings and panels to get off my feet for a little bit and, more importantly, to remind myself that we are there for the art. </p><br /><p>This could be fun. Please feel free to introduce yourself if you see me, assuming my badge has the right side showing. </p><br /><br /><br /><p></p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><p></p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><p></p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><p></p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><p><em></p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><br /></div></em><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><br /><br /></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><br /><br /></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><br /><br /></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div>aaaaa</div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><br /><br /></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div>aaaaaaa</div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><br /><br /></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><br /><br /></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><br /><br /></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><br /><br /></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div></div></div></div>J.D. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12872696837674464350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924986772296186515.post-74697372949939160482011-10-17T15:02:00.000-07:002011-10-19T22:03:33.878-07:00DeparturesThe summer and early fall have found this space largely neglected, as I consider guest posts from fellow writers and wait for news to emerge.<br /><br />The title of this post does not refer to travel, but detours from my usual habits. The first detour is self-publication, which I have generally avoided in order to benefit from editorial judgment. The second detour is speculative fiction, which I have never attempted outside of the story below.<br /><br />My reason for posting the story below is to make it available for possible inclusion in an anthology of Peak Oil-related fiction to be edited by John Michael Greer, a prolific author, Master Organic Gardener and blogger behind <em>The Archdruid Report</em>. By no means do I share all of Mr. Greer's ideas, and he graciously does not expect that of anyone; in fact, his work has added to my vocabulary the word "dissensus" and reminded me of the utility of multiple and often conflicting opinions. I find myself most in agreement with him regarding the necessity of acknowledging and addressing the finitude of global resources, including but not limited to oil, and preparing to live with increasingly obvious limitations.<br /><br />With this in mind I present below my story "The Urgent, the Necessary," which runs about 2,500 words.<br /><br />Thank you for whatever attention you care to give the piece.<br /><br /><strong>THE URGENT, THE NECESSARY</strong><br />The waiting is over. Whatever they contain, the quarterly performance reviews have been distributed. Besides the relief of no longer waiting, there’s a certain entertainment value in the distribution ritual. Like any number of other rituals, it is aggressively outdated, drawing on the paraphernalia of earlier times. At the end of the appointed work day, the Director himself, like his predecessors stooped and gone gray in a handful of years, oscillates among our workstations in alphabetical order rather than seniority, passing out envelopes signed across the left half of the seal and sealed again sealed with wax on the right. The specifications for this procedure must be guarded among files at a higher level of access, or successive directors have come to believe that they are, and do not question them.<br /><br />While the Director’s ritual is a public performance, each of us greets the envelope with a private counterpart. Some tuck it into a pocket, or lay it slowly in a briefcase. A few crumple their envelopes, violating the folds, or grasp them by one end, like a knife handle, and hold them that that way as they walk out the door. Analyst Perez sets his unopened envelope face-up on the desk and takes out a bottle of something brown and strong to toast the contents, as if he were propitiating an unknown god. On more than one occasion others have helped him continue the ceremony after work. Analyst Barton tucks the envelope into her brassiere.<br /><br />Because our actions vary no more than the Director’s, there is no apparently no correlation between the handling of the reports and what the handlers expect to read. “Apparently” is all that can be said, because we never discuss our reviews. There are too many other topics. On the way out this evening, or tomorrow morning, we will discuss the weather, as a matter of course, and as a factor in our work. We discuss family, sports, love lives or lack thereof, and even money. All of our small talk circles around a larger silence.<br /><br />My ritual before not discussing my review—such as it is—consists of setting the envelope under a paperweight and waiting for my colleagues to leave. Then I slide it out from under the paperweight with my left hand, the one I could live without if the contents burned or shredded it, a less painful outcome than losing my position and descending from subject to object of energy calculations. I let the chunk of crystal resist, even turn over as the envelope comes free at the usual thirty-degree angle. It is long past time to think of imitating a magician pulling a tablecloth from under place settings. The bones that already are revealing themselves, precocious fossils emerging from the erosion of flesh, tell me as much. Such talents as I possess lie elsewhere.<br /><br />At this point, when the envelope is cantilevered like a fishing pole, a diving board, a future over uncertainty, I tear open a corner and insert my right index finger. A letter opener seems too impersonal for the text that will extend my tenure for another three months or end it forever. Though I might be difficult to replace, leaving my successor with a steep learning curve, I am by no means indispensable. Analyst Montrose came to believe that he was, with predictable results, and he was widely acknowledged as the most brilliant of us all. Six years ago, on a hangover day when he merely skimmed his data sheets rather than read them cell by cell, he missed a sudden dip in projected supply and did not activate the protocol for issuing a shortage alert. The official explanation is hidden in thickets of polysyllables, saving face for the rest of us, but everyone knows the results as the Atlanta Gas Riot. When last I heard he was shining shoes near the ruins of the St. Louis Arch.<br /><br />I raggedly open the flap and let the contents fall onto the desktop. At this time of day the landing is audible.<br /><br />I withdraw the review and unfold it in two steady motions. Perhaps something of this magnitude in my life, if no one else’s, should blossom like a paper flower in water, or perhaps it should be unveiled like a statue. It doesn’t; it isn’t. Instead, my recent past and near future disclose themselves as marks on a page. This time, though, the review runs to two pages: along with the usual quantitative section and its twenty items, the optional qualitative section continues at great length. The comments are handwritten in the Director’s poor script, learned when almost everyone had a computer. Yet, like the rest of this ceremony, these comments are hallowed by obsolescence. All that remains for me is to sign the review and indicate my agreement, or at least my acquiescence, a final antiquated touch.<br /><br />Deciding whether to sign seems to call for no less care than any other part of my work, but the habits of analysis do not end with the turn of a clock’s hand as the workday closes. In the last few hours terawatts of energy have in effect flowed through my synapses as I’ve allocated them according to source and destination. No thought, no drop, should be wasted.<br /><br />That was the goal, the theoretical ideal or omega point toward which our training was directed. No shortages, no complaints, no surpluses that produced regional disparities in allowed energy use. Whither gasoline and gasoline? Where could brownouts settle and blackouts roll with the smallest losses of life and property?<br /><br />Our performance could never attain perfection, as our instructors were the first to admit, but we were charged all day, every day with reducing the distance between the real and the ideal: the asymptotic null, better known as Zeno’s arrow forever approaching but never reaching its target.<br /><br />But arrows reach their targets as we never can. The archer aims at what lies before his eyes and only an instant separates his intent and his action. The target can only move or be moved so far in that time. We have fewer options. As the image of a star conveys only how that star appeared light years ago, the data at our disposal summarized a state of affairs that had already changed. Populations shift, firms expand and contract, or they arise and vanish like bubbles.<br /><br />We could only hope to minimize the damage, like goalkeepers. Also like goalkeepers, we were given equipment, and our pay was based on performance. We’ve always paid for our gasoline and electricity like everyone else, but it took little from our sizeable salaries. In my first years, when cars were still common, I took drives in the country with no destination in mind. I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the speed and freedom, or the illusion of it, and the envious looks. Those were youthful indiscretions. That’s what I keep telling myself, anyway. Whatever they were, at some point in life a man has to stop working at cross-purposes with himself. I returned to doing a good job instead of having one.<br /><br />All things old are new again: I circled back to the ethos of our charter class of employees at the Energy Distribution Agency. Once the climate warmed unto volatility, floods competed with droughts and stable conditions disappeared. Even rented experts would no longer testify that these were only cyclical variations of Earth and Sun, or that we had the fuel to make and run machines that would rescue us, fetishes engineered to the tightest tolerances. At that point things were not as they had been; science began to shape policy. We were recruited from the best universities, and our pictures appeared in magazines, and on websites. A newspaper called us “Stars of an age of limits,” and a business journal feature story on us bore the headline “Scouts on the Pareto Frontier.” We were celebrities, or as close to it as a person could get without singing or acting, and for people who didn’t act or sing we were paid very well.<br /><br />In spite of our means, though, many of us did not marry, as I didn’t. This used to seem like coincidence, a small random cluster, but over time the pattern continued as our numbers grew, and as vacancies were filled. What started out as a prestigious job turned into a vocation, and some of us even spoke of it as a calling. Something larger than our private happiness was at stake.<br /><br />This sense of vocation, or a penumbra of it, forces me to read and reread the evaluation like a sacred text. As with parsing data, I believe reading the comments hard and long enough should allow significations and shades of meaning to emerge and guide my next quarter’s work, as others have discerned courses of in tossed sticks, tea leaves or the entrails of a bird. Evidence for this belief waxes and wanes, or slips just beyond the horizon. Whatever I believe, it is certain that much of Arizona and New Mexico, and large portions of Texas, depend on me. All there are strangers I have made a point of not meeting or corresponding with. Personal acquaintance would cloud my judgment.<br /><br />Evaluating the evaluation, I find that the quantitative section neither pleases nor surprises me. Shortages and complaints are up. So, too, are temporary surpluses, though they are resolved quickly enough; later records usually show that populations have declined as some leave for land to farm, or a place closer to work. But there is no getting around the fact that my overall efficiency ratings are down. No business has closed, no hospital blacked out without warning, no one left without supplies and turned to leather in the Western air. (I’ve seen pictures of what happened in Laughlin, and read several accounts. Analyst Burton hanged himself before he could be dismissed.)<br /><br />The incident report section is filled with numbered entries, and incidents are never good. The larger events are accompanied by citizen complaints and bad press. Mine include browning out parts of the Phoenix area, which people don’t call the Valley of the Sun that much anymore, to keep electricity going to Tucson. I sacrificed retail in favor of homes both times, but next time my decision could down to homes versus homes. Or hospital versus hospital. The existing backup generators are aging, and replacements are slow to come online. But that is another day’s set of calculations.<br /><br />From the ink thickets of the comments section arise a few phrases I haven’t seen since my grade school report cards, such as “seems distracted,” “a slowing of response time,” “appears to be engaging in non-work activities.” The latter go unspecified.<br /><br />Signing off on these comments, on the report as a whole, would take only a stroke of the pen. Everyone goes through peaks and valleys of productivity, and in our training we were told to expect as much. It is only necessary to acknowledge the troughs, consent to a refresher course or two, and commit to improving performance. Then all is forgiven.<br /><br />Yet this time I will not seek forgiveness, as there is nothing to be forgiven. At this point in my career it is not a matter of pride: analysts either outgrow their <em>enfant terrible</em> stage or move into the private sector. All that prevents me from signing signature is a regard for the facts. This, too, might amount to a flaw, but it is less self-indulgence than an occupational hazard. We are all deformed by our occupations, and perhaps our greatest choice is how to be deformed. Rightly or wrongly, I have chosen to be deformed by paying attention, and by holding fast to what I see.<br /><br />The facts behind the evaluation apparently do not fit in its boxes. The largest incidents reported occurred on days when I most strictly applied the Southwest Distribution Equation. On days with smaller incidents, or none, I went to the edge of my discretionary range and sometimes beyond it. Too many factors lie outside the equation, or the available statistics are out of date. Households are growing larger near the main roads and power lines; a glance at yards and sidewalk on a mild day show as much. The gas and electricity have to follow them.<br /><br />There is only so much we can do for the subdivision hold-outs. As if this weren’t enough, the tappers have found ways around the pipelines’ sensors, and hijackers more often than not outgun the armed guards on tanker trucks. After drugs were legalized the cartels had to diversify. What this means to me is that on any given day gas and supplies are overstated by five to ten percent. One day last year the difference reached twenty percent, and the Director took the next week off on the advice of his physician, in the sense of the word meaning press office.<br /><br />My memos have covered my reservations, and confessed my furthest detours into discretion. When there is a reply, in eleven to twelve percent of the instances, my proposals are categorized as denied, taken under consideration, or presently unfeasible. A fourth category, adopted, exists exclusively in theory. I once wrote a memo inquiring as to the ultimate purpose of the equation, if it might involve something other than the allocation of energy, such as the appearance of allocating energy to prevent panic. Eighteen months later, this memo received no reply. Such replies as came noted that the issues I mentioned fell under the jurisdiction of the Review Committee, whose mandate was to review from time to time the regional equations. From time to time they did, those times lengthening, before being de-funded. Left behind are the formulae, templates set over conditions that fit them less and less.<br /><br />With all due respect to the facts, I may initial some of the Director’s comments. I am distracted, and move slower than I should. I can lose much or all of a night’s sleep to examining news and other reports for trends, or modeling the outcomes of alternative equations.<br /><br />Consulting my findings during the day is what must be meant by “non-work activity,” a point on which I will not sign off. This will require an explanation, and I will provide one, placed under a request for extra time to discuss my review.<br /><br />There is no choice but to prepare the materials now, while there is no noise to distract me save the low buzz of electric current and the blood coursing past my eardrums. Tonight I will need to rest, if I can rest while knowing that what I don’t learn could change lives and fortunes, or end them. Depending on what happens, even more lives and fortunes could be in play, such as my own. The appearance of allocation might be served by a firing, an investigation, perhaps some other burnt offering to the public.<br /><br />In any event, I have no children to provide for, and my own needs are few. There may be work in St. Louis.J.D. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12872696837674464350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924986772296186515.post-87703220260705099702011-06-20T14:21:00.000-07:002011-06-20T15:19:39.397-07:00Dowsing and Science Now Available<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KfXmZBS0xek/Tf-6b2gcJpI/AAAAAAAAAHY/6FMZoFOmtOs/s1600/JD_Smith_Front_Cover.rv.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5620415847632479890" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 204px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KfXmZBS0xek/Tf-6b2gcJpI/AAAAAAAAAHY/6FMZoFOmtOs/s320/JD_Smith_Front_Cover.rv.jpg" border="0" /></a>Good things take time, but they do happen.<br /><br /><br />With that in mind I am pleased to announce the publication of my essay collection <em>Dowsing and Science</em> by <a href="http://www.shsu.edu/~www_trp/"><span style="color:#cc0000;">Texas Review Press</span></a>, which the <em>Huffington Post</em> has called one of the United States' "top fifteen feisty small presses." Individual essays in the book have appeared in publications including <em>Amarillo Bay</em>, <em>American Arts Quarterly</em>, <em>Barcelona Review</em>, <em>Boulevard</em>, <em>Chelsea</em>, <em>Connecticut Review</em>, <em>In These Times</em>, <em>Laurel Review, Pleiades </em>and<em> Texas Review. </em><br /><br /><br /><br />The author's work, though, makes up only part of a book.<br /><br />The striking cover, shown above, features a photograph of a work by <a href="http://jamesreynoldsmetalwork.com/"><span style="color:#3333ff;">James Reynolds</span></a>, incorporated into a larger cover design by Nancy Parsons of <a href="http://graphicdesigngroup.net/home.htm"><span style="color:#990000;">Graphic Design Group</span></a>.<br /><br /><br />I am also grateful that three distinguished writers, <a href="http://www.richardburgin.net/"><span style="color:#660000;">Richard Burgin</span></a>, <a href="http://www.onlythesenses.com/"><span style="color:#000099;">Wayne Miller</span></a> and <a href="http://ericmileswilliamson.wordpress.com/"><span style="color:#990000;">Eric Miles Williamson</span></a>, offered generous comments for the cover. Future posts will include what they have to say, as well as some background on Texas Review Press.<br /><br /><br />While <em>Dowsing and Science</em> will soon be available from online sellers across North America, Europe, Africa, Oceania and Asia, it can now be purchased from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dowsing-Science-J-D-Smith/dp/1933896590/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1308605682&amp;sr=1-1">one particularly well-known merchant</a> based in the United States.J.D. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12872696837674464350noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924986772296186515.post-38036920358357833052011-05-02T13:12:00.000-07:002011-05-02T14:21:03.634-07:00Acceptance of Third Poetry Collection: Labor Day at Venice BeachNow that National Poetry Month is over, and I have learned that the answer to the question <a href="http://jdsmithwriter.blogspot.com/2011/04/on-not-being-poetry-star.html"><span style="color:#009900;">"Where's my cut?"</span></a> is "nowhere", I can share some good news I learned of in mid-March and formalized in recent weeks.<br /><br />To wit, my third book of poetry, <em>Labor Day at Venice Beach</em>, has been accepted for publication by the <a href="http://www.cherry-grove.com/"><span style="color:#990000;">Cherry Grove Collections</span></a> imprint of <a href="http://www.wordtechcommunications.com/"><span style="color:#990000;">Wordtech Communications</span></a>, which also published my second collection, <em><a href="http://www.cherry-grove.com/smith.html">Settling for Beauty</a></em>, in 2005. Publication is scheduled for August of 2012.<br /><br />While not all of the poems in <em>Labor Day at Venice Beach</em> have been published, the majority have. The title poem and another, "Four Fires", nominated for a Pushcart Prize, appeared in the <em><a href="http://redhen.org/losangelesreview/">Los Angeles Review</a></em>, the periodical wing of <a href="http://redhen.org/"><span style="color:#cc0000;">Red Hen Press</span></a>. Other poems appeared in a variety of print and online publications, including the following:<br /><br /><br /><div align="center"><em><a href="http://www.32poems.com/"><span style="color:#000099;">32 Poems</span></a></em></div><br /><div align="center"><em><a href="http://www.alimentumjournal.com/"><span style="color:#000099;">Alimentum</span></a></em></div><br /><div align="center"><em><a href="http://altweb.astate.edu/arkreview/"><span style="color:#000099;">Arkansas Review</span></a></em></div><br /><div align="center"><em><a href="http://web.mac.com/renkat/flash/BabelFruit04.swf"><span style="color:#000099;">Babel Fruit</span></a><span style="color:#000099;"> </span></em></div><br /><div align="center"><em><a href="http://www.gargoylemagazine.com/"><span style="color:#000099;">Gargoyle Magazine</span></a></em></div><br /><div align="center"><em><a href="http://helixmagazine.org/"><span style="color:#000099;">The Helix Magazine</span></a></em></div><br /><div align="center"><em>Hiss Quarterly</em></div><br /><div align="center"><em><a href="http://www.authorme.com/innisfree.htm"><span style="color:#000099;">The Innisfree Poetry Journal</span></a></em></div><br /><div align="center"><em><a href="http://sites.google.com/site/lilliputreview/"><span style="color:#000099;">Lilliput Review</span></a></em></div><br /><div align="center"><em><a href="http://www.thepedestalmagazine.com/"><span style="color:#000099;">The Pedestal Magazine</span></a></em></div><br /><div align="center"><em>Poems Niederngasse</em></div><br /><div align="center"><em><a href="http://www.terrain.org/"><span style="color:#000099;">Terrain</span></a></em></div><br /><div align="center"><em><a href="http://www.umbrellajournal.com/"><span style="color:#000099;">Umbrella</span></a></em></div><br /><div align="center"><em><a href="http://www.versewisconsin.org/"><span style="color:#000099;">Verse Wisconsin</span></a></em></div><br /><div align="center"></div><br /><div align="justify">I am grateful to the editors of all of these journals, and I am pleased to have met several of them following the publication of my poems. If other individual poems in the collection are published in journals I will update this space and my acknowledgments page accordingly.</div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">Some have said that writing is the easy part, though I'm not so sure about that. At any rate, now begins the part that's more than a little challenging for a dreamy introvert, such as many poets are. I have to obtain blurbs and locate venues for readings on whatever my book tour may turn out to be. I also have to cast about and see which journals are willing to review the book. In fact, I might even gear up for a launch party and a house reading or two.</div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">Suggestions on these issues are welcome in the comments or by personal message.</div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">In contrast to 2005, though, in 2012 I will not be planning a book launch at the same time as a wedding. With some lead time and a lot more knowledge than the last time out, I might get more recognition and maybe even some more sales. </div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">This space will feature many more updates on book preparation and launching, but in the meantime, you read it here first. </div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">Coming in August 2012: <em>Labor Day at Venice Beach</em>.</div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"></div>J.D. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12872696837674464350noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924986772296186515.post-89767702248854327012011-04-29T07:20:00.000-07:002011-04-29T08:22:55.874-07:00My Poem "From a Deposition" in The Lineup #4As noted previously in this space, I have a poem in <a href="http://poemsoncrime.blogspot.com/p/get-lineup.html"><em><span style="color:#990000;">The Lineup #4: Poems on Crime</span></em></a>, edited by Gerald So and Reed Farrel Coleman.<br /><br />Gerald has graciously asked contributors to write a post to which he would link from his own blog, and today is my day.<br /><br />First, I want to publicly apologize for being a few hours late on this. My stats counter indicates people have been checking.<br /><br />Second, I should note that my first choice of topic was actually the great gut-punch of a poem in this year's issue by Charles Harper Webb (a poem to which I was first introduced by my friend and colleague Henry Perez). Other contributors got there first, though, so my fallback is to discuss my own poem in the issue, entitled "From a Deposition." The discussion will be a lot more polysyllabic and cerebral than the poem itself, which is plain-spoken and visceral, so please don't let my prose scare you aware from my poetry.<br /><br />The poem's title may need a little explanation. From time to time I find myself writing poems that take the form of excerpts from non-existent larger works. This is by no means original with me. While I am not enough of a scholar to say where that technique originated, I learned it from reading the stories of the great Argentine writer José Luis Borges. If you're up for a reading challenge, you may also want to check out emerging American writer Jenny Boully's book-length essay <em>The Body</em>, which consists entirely of footnotes to an absent text. This technique invokes the possibility of a wider reality while allowing the writer to address only the most important points and avoid details that would bore the reader.<br /><br />Using this framework, the poem is a first-person account of rape, drawn from imagination rather than experience. The available information on rape victims' experience suggests that describing the crime and acknowledging its full (and horrendous) reality in its immediate aftermath proves difficult if not impossible, and the poem attempts to capture that ambivalence about discussing the subject with strangers in the legal and justice system. One may reasonably wonder if rapists depend on this difficulty in order to elude arrest and prosecution for their already underreported crime.<br /><br />Some might argue that the poem (and the poet) are guilty of appropriation, or taking up a topic one is not entitled to address. This issue most often comes up when a writer addresses the experience of an ethnic or racial group other than his or her own, but in this case means writing about a victimization I have not experienced.<br /><br />There are some people who won't be satisfied by any attempt to justify appropriation, but here's mine, which people can take or leave as they see fit: this poem, like many poems, came about as an experience of empathy, and it is the only poem I have ever written or am likely to write about rape. It is not part of a career-building strategy or a literary hoax. Moreover, like the editors and the other contributors, I am not doing this for the money, only the possibilities of art.<br /><br />This long post at its end, I invite you to read my short poem "From a Deposition" and work by approximately two dozen writers, some very well known, in <a href="http://poemsoncrime.blogspot.com/p/get-lineup.html"><em><span style="color:#990000;">The Lineup #4</span></em></a>.J.D. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12872696837674464350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924986772296186515.post-42111552528947746962011-04-25T14:29:00.000-07:002011-04-25T15:24:30.006-07:00Take a Chance on E.I'd like to paraphrase ABBA, as well as interrupt my usual self-promotion, to put in a word for a friend and colleague.<br /><br />That is one Eric Hendrixson, whom I've known for about a decade from DC-area events including <a href="http://fryingthecat.com/?p=50"><span style="color:#6600cc;">The Batcave</span></a> and the <a href="http://www.wordworksdc.com/collaborations.html"><span style="color:#000099;">Iota Poetry series</span></a>. I've read and endorse his <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bizarro_fiction">Bizarro Fiction</a> novel with the highly improbable but strangely apt title <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bucket-Face-Eric-Hendrixson/dp/1936383314/"><em><span style="color:#000099;">Bucket of Face</span></em></a>. Published by <a href="http://eraserheadpress.com/"><span style="color:#990000;">Eraserhead Press</span></a> of Portland, Oregon as part of its New Bizarro Authors series last October, this novel features a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noir_film"><span style="color:#000000;"><strong>noir</strong></span></a> sensibility and a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macguffin"><span style="color:#006600;">MacGuffin</span></a>-driven plot and has a cast of characters including various sentient fruits and vegetables, most notably a "hit tomato" whose softer side involves Michael Jackson fandom.<br /><br /><br />No, I am not making this up. Eric is.<br /><br /><br />But in these days of constrained resources and limited advertising budgets, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bucket-Face-Eric-Hendrixson/dp/1936383314/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1303769541&amp;sr=1-1"><em><span style="color:#000099;">Bucket of Face</span></em></a> has not yet found all the readers it deserves. As noted in a piece on the book in the <a href="http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/books/2011/04/14/eric-hendrixson-author-of-bizarro-novels-needs-you-to-buy-his-killer-tomato-book/"><em><span style="color:#333300;">Washington City Paper</span></em></a>, books in the New Bizarro Authors series must sell 200 copies before an author's second book is considered. Right now Eric's book is just a little over halfway there, which means that lots of people have not treated themselves to a story that will make you laugh out loud, challenge your sensibilities and, when you least expect it, deliver an emotional gut-punch.<br /><br /><br />You could spend bigger money on smaller thrills, but why bother when you can read <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bucket-Face-Eric-Hendrixson/dp/1936383314/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1303769541&amp;sr=1-1"><span style="color:#000066;">Bucket of Face</span></a></em>?J.D. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12872696837674464350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924986772296186515.post-65535988278367817852011-04-18T14:25:00.000-07:002011-04-19T14:51:43.094-07:00On Not Being a Poetry StarAs you may very well know at this point, we are deep in the throes of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Poetry_Month"><span style="color:#000099;">National Poetry Month</span></a>. If you were trying to forget about that, please accept my apologies.<br /><br /><br />As in most previous National Poetry Months, I am haunted by an all-pervasive question. To wit, "Where's my cut?"<br /><br />To paraphrase the words of Nils Tufnel in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088258/">This Is Spinal Tap</a>, "The answer is nowhere. Nowhere is my cut."<br /><br /><br />This is because, while National Poetry Month affords much-needed exposure to an art form that is all too easily overshadowed and shouted out in an era of spectacle, the exposure and such perks as exist go to those who are already poetry stars. In this instance, it must be said, "star" is a highly relative term. Even the best and most established poets in the United States, the ones with multiple prestigious publications and an impression collection of grants, are fortunate to have a book sell five thousand copies. Few have literary agents, and none of them needs a bodyguard or entourage. All are blessedly immune to the prospect of a reality television role.<br /><br /><br />Still, poetry stars get a few expenses-paid readings and maybe some extra sales this time of year, as well as the attention noted above. And the last time I checked, I am not one of them.<br /><br /><br />It might be a wise marketing move, a way of making a virtue of necessity, to say that such poetry stardom as exists probably isn't all that great, or that the poetry world is completely corrupt and toally composed of the "phonies" that Salinger's Holden Caulfield denounced in <em>The Catcher in the Rye</em>.<br /><br />I can't honestly say those things, however. The fox in Aesop's fable may have consoled himself with the thought that the grapes he couldn't reach were probably sour grapes anyway, but I suspect that the grapes of poetry stardom (however few or small they may be) are actually kind of tasty. Put me down for two bunches, please.<br /><br />Moreover, the poetry world is only partially corrupt and only partially composed of phonies, which in this instance means handing out scarce prizes and publication slots to friends, students or family. Sorting out which poets are and aren't inspires no small number of off-the-record debates.<br /><br /><br />Worrying a great deal about one's status in poetry, an oxymonoric phrase to be sure, is a decidedly First World problem. Doing so betrays both vanity and envy, at various times called character flaws or besetting sins. I am comfortable with either term, if not the reality it names.<br /><br />One question that arises from this morass of self-involvement is, in short, "Why am I not a poetry star?" By extension, why aren't many others?<br /><br />A variety of answers come to mind.<br /><br /><ol><br /><li><em>Inadequate achievement</em>. Poets are not the best judges of how their work stacks up. Maybe my work to date doesn't deserve poetry stardom, or doesn't show signs of doing so any time soon, if ever. Maybe my best poems are far ahead of me or, heaven forfend, behind. The truth can hurt. We'll see how things shake out.</li><br /><li><em>Inadequte achievement</em>. See Item 1. </li><br /><li><em>Insufficient charisma</em>. As noted in <em>Pulp Fiction</em>, personality goes a long way. Some people command attention simply by being present, and all other things being equal that will help them to find audiences and sell books. Some of the rest of us are more retiring by nature and don't electrify a room by walking in.</li><br /><li><em>Insufficient connections</em>. In the prestige economy of poetry, connections are a kind of currency. One can inherit them by being born into a literary family or acquire them by attending certain schools, whether Ivy League stalwarts or better-known creative writing programs. I have more connections than some and fewer than others, and no amount of connections will help a poet whose work doesn't attain some theoretical minimum degree of quality.</li><br /><li><em>Being insufficiently "beautiful" in a conventional sense and/or insufficiently photogenic</em>. People gravitate toward good-looking and photogenic/telegenic people, especially those who are charismatic. It just works like that. If Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt start writing good poetry, or even average poetry, many of us poets are in trouble. As it is, poetry careers sometimes benefits from the poet's good looks. The same could be said for this as for Items 3 and 4: we play the cards we're dealt, and who wouldn't use the advantages they have? </li><br /><li><em>Writing poems that may not find favor with current factions and fashions.</em> Poems and poets can fall between the cracks that separate different schools, styles and publications. Falling between the cracks can happen to a good or very good poet, but it also happens to plenty of mediocre or worse poems. </li><br /><li><em>See Items 1 and 2</em>.</li></ol><br /><p>I may attain some level of poetry stardom, or maybe not. That's largely for others to decide. In the meantime, to paraphrase Allen Ginsberg, I will put my slight shoulder to the wheel.</p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><p></p>J.D. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12872696837674464350noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924986772296186515.post-87270143382451571262011-04-11T09:07:00.000-07:002011-04-11T11:55:19.077-07:00Open Mic Bingo<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VsJfxPvUJj8/TaNKuPi85SI/AAAAAAAAAHM/Q7zfAkcacxA/s1600/Open%2BMic%2BBingo.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5594397320431854882" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 154px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VsJfxPvUJj8/TaNKuPi85SI/AAAAAAAAAHM/Q7zfAkcacxA/s200/Open%2BMic%2BBingo.jpg" border="0" /></a> <br /><div></div><br /><div></div><br /><div></div><br /><div></div><br /><div></div><br /><div></div><br /><div></div><br /><div>Since April is <a href="http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/41">National Poetry Month</a>, even non-poets may find themselves attending a reading or two. While many events include only featured readers, some events also include, or consist entirely of, an open mic segment in which all comers can sign up and perform for a certain length of time or text. </div><br /><div></div><br /><div>Like other gatherings, the open mic includes a variety of features and rituals. For the edification of newcomers, and for a variety of uses by experienced attendees, I present above a card for Open Mic Bingo (click to enlarge). Prompted by a conversation with my wife, this card also has antecedents in Meeting Bingo and the recent <a href="http://wewhoareabouttodie.com/2010/04/08/your-official-awp-conference-bingo-card/">AWP Bingo</a> card by <a href="http://danielnester.com/">Daniel Nester</a>. Others may have done this previously and/or better, but this is the first attempt I know of. If I can observe enough by watching, to paraphrase <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogi_Berra">Yogi Berra</a>, I hope eventually to provide a second card for the ambitious or experienced player. </div><br /><div></div><br /><div>For now, game on! </div><br /><div></div><br /><div></div><br /><div></div><br /><div></div>J.D. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12872696837674464350noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924986772296186515.post-61323396923264467142011-03-25T13:40:00.000-07:002011-03-25T14:11:30.586-07:00This Book Is Priced to Move!If you've read this blog more than a time or two, you may have noticed the occasional reference to my second collection, <a href="http://www.cherry-grove.com/smith.html"><span style="color:#000099;">Settling for Beauty</span></a>.<br /><br /><br />Perhaps you thought about purchasing a copy but held off because you needed to save money.<br /><br /><br />Now you can do both--have my book <em>and</em> save money.<br /><br /><br />"How can that be?" you might ask.<br /><br /><br />That is a very good question, and I just happen to have an answer.<br /><br /><br />Right now <a href="http://www.cherry-grove.com/smith.html"><span style="color:#000099;">Settling for Beauty</span></a> is priced to move <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Settling-Beauty-J-D-Smith/dp/1933456051/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1301085879&amp;sr=1-1"><span style="color:#993399;">at one of the leading online booksellers</span></a>. Yes, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/">that one</a>. You can have a 76-page book of accessible free verse for less than you might spend on a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burrito"><span style="color:#990000;">burrito</span></a>.<br /><br /><br />If you have any remaining doubt as to whether you should purchase a copy of <a href="http://www.cherry-grove.com/smith.html">Settling for Beauty</a>, this might help. Should you buy the book and not like it, I will refund the sale price of the book to the first five individuals who state that they do not like it and can provide proof of purchase.<br /><br /><br />Obviously, this works on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor_system"><span style="color:#000099;">honor system</span></a>. Anyone who likes the book but would lie to get a small refund has to live with himself, and I still won't be out much money.<br /><br /><br />If you are still on the fence, here is one more to chance to <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Settling-Beauty-J-D-Smith/dp/1933456051/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1301087290&amp;sr=1-1"><span style="color:#3333ff;">check out the link</span></a>.J.D. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12872696837674464350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924986772296186515.post-14955848576944382372011-03-16T14:11:00.000-07:002011-03-17T14:10:34.397-07:00The Nervous BreakdownIn spite of the recent and ongoing disaster in Japan, and a wide range of other national and global developments, the subject line does not describe my mental condition. Yet.<br /><br />In this instance, <a href="http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/">The Nervous Breakdown</a> (TNB) means a Los Angeles-based online journal whose home page sometimes bears the slogan "Fighting the power since 2006," so its age in Internet years is approximately a whole lot.<br /><br />As it turns out, Poetry Editor <a href="http://uche.ogbuji.net/">Uche Ogbuji</a> graciously gave me space for not one but two pieces earlier this month.<br /><br />The first is my poem <a href="http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/jdsmith/2011/03/in-an-atrium/">"In an Atrium"</a>. This short free verse poem may not be ripped from the headlines, as they say, but it is based on real events and home furnishings.<br /><br />The second is a <a href="http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/jdsmith/2011/02/jd-smith-the-tnb-self-interview/">self-interview</a>, which proved more challenging than I expected. Knowing the answers is one thing, but coming up with the questions is quite another.<br /><br />Whatever you think of my work, you may want to poke around TNB's poetry archives, which include poems and self-interviews by poets including <a href="http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/mmoscaluic/2010/03/suicide-is-for-optimists-cioran-said/"><span style="color:#3333ff;">Mihaela Moscaluic</span></a>, <a href="http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/krooney/2009/12/robinsons-hometown/"><span style="color:#3333ff;">Kathleen Rooney</span></a> and the legendary <a href="http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/lturco/2010/06/john/"><span style="color:#000099;">Lewis Turco</span></a>. Also featured is <a href="http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/tsteele/2010/07/pastoral-at-rock-point/"><span style="color:#3333ff;">work by Timothy Steele</span></a>, with whom I've had the great good fortune of studying at the <a href="http://www.wcupoetrycenter.com/"><span style="color:#3333ff;">West Chester University Poetry Conference</span></a>.<br /><br />You'll find plenty else to like in the fiction, non-fiction and review sections, among others.J.D. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12872696837674464350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924986772296186515.post-14783670728672911442011-03-09T19:34:00.000-08:002011-03-09T19:59:56.435-08:00Work in The Lineup: Poems on CrimeThe other anthology shoe has dropped, in a good way.<br /><br /><br />My poem "From a Deposition" is one among many by more than two dozen poets in Issue #4 of <span style="color:#3333ff;"><a href="http://poemsoncrime.blogspot.com/"><span style="color:#3333ff;">The Lineup: Poems on Crime</span></a>, </span><span style="color:#000000;">edited by <a href="http://geraldso.blogspot.com/"><span style="color:#3333ff;">Gerald So</span></a>. </span><br /><br /><br />I am grateful and amazed to see my own work in the volume as poems by far better-known writers such as crime novelists <a href="http://www.kenbruen.com/"><span style="color:#009900;">Ken Bruen</span></a> and <a href="http://www.reedcoleman.com/"><span style="color:#009900;">Reed Farrel Coleman</span></a>, and poets <a href="http://poemsoncrime.blogspot.com/2010/11/randall-watson.html"><span style="color:#cc6600;">Randall Watson</span></a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Harper_Webb"><span style="color:#3333ff;">Charles Harper Webb</span></a>.<br /><br /><br />If you're trying to convince someone that poetry touches on real life and real people, you may want to share this collection. It includes vice, theft, muggings, murder and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-traumatic_stress_disorder">post-traumatic stress disorder</a>, all in language that is moving as well as accessible.<br /><br /><br />As a man once said to me while he was trying to sell me a possibly gold chain in Chicago, "Don't cheat yourself, treat yourself."J.D. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12872696837674464350noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924986772296186515.post-63938363140840845422011-02-18T14:29:00.000-08:002011-02-18T15:14:31.526-08:00The Waiting Is the Hardest PartI should have known. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbo2ryPq8OU"><span style="color:#000099;">Tom Petty had this figured out a long time ago</span></a>.<br /><br /><br />Today is February 18, and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1933896590/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d0_i5?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&amp;pf_rd_s=center-2&amp;pf_rd_r=09NQ1F898DTP837KQ0E8&amp;pf_rd_t=101&amp;pf_rd_p=470938631&amp;pf_rd_i=507846"><span style="color:#3333ff;">Dowsing and Science</span></a> will be released on March 1. In any long view, that is the blink of an eye, an instant. Right now, though, that period of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoLoyg3JKRQ"><span style="color:#cc0000;">anticipation</span></a> seems like an eternity.<br /><br /><br />My author's copies will arrive any day now, and then the reality will start to sink in. <span style="color:#3333ff;"><a href="http://www.shsu.edu/~www_trp/">My publisher</a></span> is graciously sending out review copies, a great weight off my shoulders, and I can move on to the business of hoping and fearing what reviewers might say.<br /><br /><br />Publicity arrangements so far include a blog tour with four stops scheduled in the next couple of months. Anyone who would like to extend that tour is welcome to get in touch.<br /><br /><br />Barring anything disastrous, there will be a Washington, DC launch event at some point in the spring. One venue that seemed promising for that purpose is closing at the end of this month, so event planning begins all over again.<br /><br /><br />Now there are readings and talks to schedule, and invitations are more than welcome. Fortunate are the writers who have agents and speakers' bureaus, and it would delight me to become one of them.<br /><br /><br />But for now there is the waiting. So close, and so far away, is the publication of <a href="http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Dowsing-and-Science/J-D-Smith/e/9781933896595/?itm=1&amp;USRI=dowsing+and+science"><span style="color:#000099;">Dowsing and Science</span></a>.J.D. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12872696837674464350noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924986772296186515.post-76444914254390859022011-02-15T14:29:00.000-08:002011-02-15T14:51:08.841-08:00In Time for Valentine's Day (of 2012)In all the excitement of recent weeks I have forgotten to mention an anthology publication that would have been perfect for yesterday but remains timely for Valentine's Days yet to come.<br /><br />My poem "Intermezzo" (originally published as "First Blush") is included in the recently released <a href="http://www.fearlessbooks.com/Touching.htm"><span style="color:#000099;">Touching: Poems of Love, Longing and Desire, edited by Sari Friedman and D. Patrick Miller</span></a>, which is the second volume of the <a href="http://www.fearlessbooks.com/Poetry.htm"><span style="color:#339999;">Fearless Poetry Series</span></a> from <a href="http://www.fearlessbooks.com/"><span style="color:#990000;">Fearless Books</span></a> of Berkeley, California.<br /><br />I am honored to appear in this volume with quite a few accomplished poets, who include but are not limitied to the following: Maureen Tolman Flannery, Linda Nemec Foster, David Knopfler and Sy Safransky. Last but by no means least among my neighbors in the anthology is Myra Sklarew, with whom I had the great good fortune to study while I was an undergraduate at American University.<br /><br />Come for the poems, and stay for the photographs by Kelly Puleio.J.D. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12872696837674464350noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924986772296186515.post-32516704792562001412011-02-07T11:46:00.000-08:002011-02-07T12:04:57.126-08:00AWP 2011 and Ideas for AWP 2012It was fun, and it was exhausting.<br /><br /><br /><br />After a few days of attempting my best impersonation of an extrovert, I am now ready to sit back and make sense of AWP 2011 in Washington, DC, where I live.<br /><br /><br /><br />There are many lovely people I see only there, or only there and a couple of other places during the year. I may sing their praises in a separate post if I can do justice to anything like the right number of people.<br /><br /><br /><br />Yet the mind already turns to AWP 2012 in Chicago, where I have lived and studied; I grew up in the Far West suburb of Aurora.<br /><br /><br /><br />While it seems unlikely that I will propose a panel for 2012 myself, a glance at this year's schedule suggested a few that others may wish to take on.<br /><br /><br /><br />They are the following:<br /><br /><ol><br /><li>No Text Please, We're Students: Reluctant Readers in the College Classroom</li><br /><li>Writing Auto-Erotic Identities</li><br /><li>Libel and How to Get It Right</li><br /><li>Dairy Queens: Gay Male Poets of Wisconsin</li><br /><li>New Opportunities in the Teaching of Fortune Cookie Composition</li><br /><li>He Takes Out a Felt Tip, You Take Out a Ballpoint: Writing the Chicago Way</li><br /><li>Establishing and Maintaining a Lactose-Intolerant Writers' Group</li><br /><li>When Your Promotional Strategy is Better than Your Writing: How to Hide the Gap</li><br /><li>War of 1812 Bicentennial Reading</li><br /><li>Desire and Ambivalence in the Rejection Letter</li><br /><li>Stranger Things Have Happened, but Not Many: When Political Poetry Is Actually Good</li><br /><li>Reconsidering William McGonagall </li><br /><li>Deservedly Neglected Illinois Writers</li><br /><li>The Barbaric Yawp, or Teaching Creative Writing to Dogs</li><br /><li>A Celebration of Solipsism: New Confessional Poets</li><br /><li>Prize Winners Display their Fabulosity</li><br /><li>What Would Nelson Algren Do?</li><br /><li>The Ego Has Landed: Projecting False Modesty Once Your Career Takes Off</li></ol><br /><p>I wish the best of luck to anyone who wishes to make these ideas a reality. Attribution of the original source will be most welcome.</p>J.D. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12872696837674464350noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924986772296186515.post-3936324904629524342011-02-02T07:44:00.000-08:002011-02-02T08:38:31.265-08:00Off to the Fair, or AWP and MeTo paraphrase Emily Dickinson, and do so badly, because I would not come to AWP, AWP kindly came to me.<br /><br />AWP, generally pronounced by its letters rather than as rhyming with Walt Whitman's "barbaric yawp", is the <a href="http://www.awpwriter.org/"><span style="color:#6600cc;">Association of Writers and Writing Programs</span></a>. The initials also serve as shorthand for the annual conference, which begins today in Washington, DC, where I live.<br /><br />Avoiding travel in a snowstorm of historic proportions is a stroke of good luck, and there are others. Without the burdens of representing an academic institution or speaking on a panel, I can take in readings and other events, as well as check out the <a href="http://www.awpwriter.org/conference/2011bookfair.php"><span style="color:#3333ff;">Bookfair</span></a> without any great pressure.<br /><br />Of course, I will have a few goals and one scheduled event. Tomorrow, February 3, I will be joining edtor Jessie Lendennie and other contributing poets in a signing of <em>Dogs Singing: A Tribute Anthology</em> at the <a href="http://www.salmonpoetry.com/event-details.php?ID=118"><span style="color:#ff6666;">Salmon Press table</span></a>.<br /><br />Other projects will involve freestyle hawking of my wares. Newest among them is my sonnet "Botanical Garden," which is the February selection of <a href="http://www.broadsidedpress.org/"><span style="color:#3366ff;">Broadsided</span></a>. I will be handing out copies myself, and others are encouraged to print out and post the poem, illustrated by <a href="http://wwwirajoelcinemagebooks.blogspot.com/"><span style="color:#3366ff;">Ira Joel Haber</span></a>.<br /><br />Also debuting at AWP is Issue 9 of <a href="http://redhen.org/losangelesreview/"><span style="color:#3333ff;">Los Angeles Review</span></a>, which includes my unusually long free verse poem "Labor Day at Venice Beach"--inspired, as they say, by actual events.<br /><br />I am also in the pleasantly odd position of promoting a book I don't yet have in hand. My essay collection <em>Dowsing and Science</em>, described on page 49 of the <a href="http://issuu.com/tamupress/docs/spring2011texasampresscat"><span style="color:#3333ff;">Spring/Summer Catalog of the Texas A&amp;M University Press consortium</span></a>, will be published on March 1. It will be a challenge to make people remember the title of a book they haven't seen. Still, the collection contains essays of varying lengths, tones, and subjects, including a few personal essays as well as a preponderance of intellectual and cultural criticism, and that variety makes <em>Dowsing and Science</em> a compact and reasonably priced choice for classroom use as well as personal reading. (Yes, I am selling my book here.) It is presently available for pre-order from the publisher and online sellers in the United States and nine other countries.<br /><br />Finally, I will be reminding people that they can still obtain my collection <a href="http://www.cherry-grove.com/smith.html"><span style="color:#3366ff;">Settling for Beauty</span></a>, which recently received<span style="color:#3366ff;"> </span><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/137748397"><span style="color:#3366ff;">a favorable review from poet and fiction writer Eric Hendrixson</span></a>. <br /><br />In the midst of all this I will have the opportunity to see friends and pass out my card, which includes the URL for this blog. Comfortable shoes will be crucial.<br /><br />And now it's off to the fair or, in the word of British novelist David Lodge, "Whee!"J.D. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12872696837674464350noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924986772296186515.post-13286208159129002152010-12-13T12:40:00.000-08:002010-12-27T14:31:32.891-08:00Anthologies and Me<p>If you've received money during the winter holiday of your choice, or if you've saved money by frugality and comparison-shopping, you may now feel the need to treat yourself with a new book or two. </p><p>Far be it from me to dissuade you from this impulse.</p><p>In fact, I have a few ideas that include my work among that of many other people, some far better known. </p><p>First up is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1456389521/ref=cm_sw_su_dp"><span style="color:#000099;">The Expeditioner's Guide: Intrepid Tales of Awesomeness from the Open Road</span></a>. This project by the editors of online travel magazine <a href="http://www.theexpeditioner.com/"><span style="color:#cc0000;">The Expeditioner</span></a> includes, in addition to my poems "Andante" and "Travelogue," work on destinations including Copenhagen, Delhi, Kenya, Kosovo, Rome and Rwanda, among others.</p><p>Second is a project I should have mentioned about this time last year. Still, a thing of beauty is a joy forever, so I can recommend Chicago photographer Adeline Sides' book <a href="http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/invited/667228/d80aeaa8d1811cc1879382d27af286a9">The Silver Series</a>, an album of classically composed nudes accompanied by poems from a variety of Chicago-based and farther-flung authors.</p><p>Third, I would be remiss if I didn't again mention <a href="http://www.salmonpoetry.com/details.php?ID=207&amp;a=88"><span style="color:#000099;">Dogs Singing: A Tribute Anthology</span></a>, edited by Jessie Lendenni and published by <a href="http://www.salmonpoetry.com/"><span style="color:#cc6600;">Salmon Poetry</span></a> of Ireland. Proceeds will be donated to dog rescue and welfare organizations in Ireland and Thailand.</p><p>Finally, I would suggest two anthologies that came into being well before I started this blog in 2008. The first is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Northern-Music-Poems-About-Inspired/dp/0934272700"><span style="color:#000099;">Northern Music: Poems about and Inspired by Glenn Gould</span></a>, which I edited and which includes one poem of my own, as well as work by Philip Dacey and Leslie Monsour. The second is <span style="color:#000099;"><a href="http://www.uiowapress.org/books/2005-spring/staina.htm"><span style="color:#000099;">In a Fine Frenzy: Poets Respond to Shakespeare</span></a>. </span><span style="color:#000000;">My two poems in the book are a retelling of the Seven Ages of Man and a sonnet that combines elements of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 and the script of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodfellas">Goodfellas</a>. Seriously. Also appearing among the collection's ninety poets are R.S. Gwynn, Diane Lockward and Leon Stokesbury. </span></p><p>Further updates on anthologies and more will be coming to this space soon.</p><br /><p></p><br /><p></p><br /><p></p><br /><p><br /></p>J.D. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12872696837674464350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924986772296186515.post-92119354109912088742010-12-06T14:47:00.000-08:002010-12-06T15:22:43.582-08:00Late Fall Harvest: Dowsing and ScienceAs noted in a previous post, the harvest is coming in.<br /><br />There will be a list of other items later this week, but for now I am pleased to report that my first essay collection, <em>Dowsing and Science</em>, appears <a href="http://issuu.com/tamupress/docs/spring2011texasampresscat"><span style="color:#000099;">on page 49 of the Spring/Summer Catalog of the Texas A&amp;M University Press Consortium</span></a>.<br /><br />Published by consortium member <a href="http://www.shsu.edu/~www_trp/"><span style="color:#3333ff;">Texas Review Press</span></a>, whose authors include Richard Burgin, George Williams and Eric Miles Williamson, <em>Dowsing and Science</em> consists of essays appearing in publications such as <em><a href="http://www.boulevardmagazine.org/">Boulevard</a></em>, <em><a href="http://www.chelseamag.org/"><span style="color:#cc0000;">Chelsea</span></a></em>, and <em><a href="http://www.ucmo.edu/pleiades/"><span style="color:#006600;">Pleiades</span></a></em>. The topics range from the title essay to a discussion of Romanian history as symbolic condition and the survival value of esthetics. A few personal accounts appear in the collection as well, discussing my first experiences with salt water (a rude shock for a Midwesterner) and how in some circles I came to be known as a king. The bulk of the collection, though, is made up of what could be called the "Impersonal Essay" in a tradition practiced by Montesquieu, eighteenth-century English writers such as Addison, Johnson and Steele, and nineteenth-century American writers like Emerson and Thoreau.<br /><br />I have been going over page proofs in the last several days and plan to make this collection the best possible experience for a wide range of readers.<br /><br />Watch this space for a few more announcements in the days ahead.J.D. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12872696837674464350noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924986772296186515.post-17898888940464518072010-11-03T09:36:00.000-07:002010-11-03T13:31:15.747-07:00Skin in the Game<p>As noted in my previous post, director Joshua Caldwell is using creative project funding platform <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/"><span style="color:#990000;">Kickstarter</span></a> to support the <a href="http://kck.st/9CGoUY"><span style="color:#993300;">film adaptation of my one-act play "Dig"</span></a>, which was produced by <a href="http://www.curvingroad.com/projects.php"><span style="color:#3333ff;">CurvingRoad at London's Old Red Lion Theatre in June of 2010</span></a>.</p><p>I realized, though, that the appeal could become more credible by having <a href="http://www.qfinance.com/dictionary/skin-in-the-game">skin in the game</a>. With that in mind, I am now one of the film's backers and not just someone passing the hat. It would be indiscreet to mention the exact amount, but it is safely above the $1 minimum pledge. </p><p>I will name others backers in this space only if I have their permission first, but I can say that those I know include two UK-based writers and a friend I have known since high school. </p><p>If you want to know more about what is going on, I invite you to take a look at the <a href="http://digshortfilm.com/">Dig Short Film website</a>, which went online in the last couple of days and is being frequently updated. You may also want to check out <a href="http://www.hollywoodboundanddown.com/2010/11/dig-pre-production-part-4.html">this post</a> on Joshua's blog <a href="http://www.hollywoodboundanddown.com/"><span style="color:#000099;">Hollywood Bound and Down</span></a>.</p><p>If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask them in the comments. </p><p> </p><p> </p>J.D. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12872696837674464350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924986772296186515.post-47300861202844571812010-10-27T12:15:00.001-07:002010-10-27T13:25:33.714-07:00Dig: The FilmAs noted in this space a while back, director <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Caldwell">Joshua Caldwell</a> has renewed his option to make a film based on my one-act play "<a href="http://www.curvingroad.com/projects.php">Dig</a>," which was produced in June at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Red_Lion_Theatre">Old Red Lion Theatre</a> in London. Preserving the central conflict of the original, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2093933/">Joshua</a> has clothed the narrative with a new set of details in the screenplay, and he will be making the film as a new work of art in its own right, as described on his blog <a href="http://www.hollywoodboundanddown.com/">Hollywood Bound and Down</a>.<br /><br /><br />At this point Joshua has nailed down locations in Southern California and has finished casting. The leads will be <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0546797/">Mark Margolis</a>, who has appeared in numerous films, among them <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1125849/">The Wrestler</a>, and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0385391/">Aaron Himelstein</a>, whose credits feature appearances on television series such as <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0412142/">House M.D.</a> and films including <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460792/">Fast Food Nation</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0146882/">High Fidelity</a>.<br /><br /><br />The adaptation of "Dig" is what Joshua has called a "passion project" that will be shown largely on the film festival circuit. As such, it won't be making anyone rich, and as a matter of fact he is continuing to seek backers for post-production expenses.<br /><br /><br />Through the magic of <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/"><span style="color:#000099;">Kickstarter</span></a>, anyone can become such a backer by pledging $1 or more to <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1687539051/dig-short-film?ref=users"><span style="color:#000099;">the short film adaptation of "Dig"</span></a>. In the last two days $796 has been pledged to the total of $6,000 needed by 4:09 p.m. EST on November 24, the day before Thanksgiving. Pledges of various sizes entitle backers to premiums that range from acknowledgments in the credits to a private screening with the cast and crew to the opportunity to appear as a featured extra. Larger backers can even be listed as Associate Producer or Executive Producer. So far the project has 19 backers, including author <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duane_Swierczynski">Duane Swierczynski</a>, whose book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wheelman-Duane-Swierczynski/dp/0312343779/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0">The Wheelman</a> I have read and can wholeheartedly recommend.<br /><br /><br />I invite you to make a pledge to <a href="http://kck.st/9CGoUY"><span style="color:#000099;">the short film adaptation of "Dig"</span></a> if you are at all able, and please pass this information along if you aren't. Joshua works like a dog, and he has been a consummate professional in his dealings with me. Backing <a href="http://kck.st/9CGoUY"><span style="color:#000099;">this project</span></a> will mean being involved in an early stage of what promises to be a remarkable career.J.D. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12872696837674464350noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2924986772296186515.post-65850357166684262202010-10-25T13:00:00.000-07:002010-10-25T13:42:37.239-07:00New Poem in Zócalo Public SquareI am pleased to note that my previously unpublished poem "<a href="http://zocalopublicsquare.org/thepublicsquare/2010/10/24/debt/read/poems/"><span style="color:#3333ff;">Debt</span></a>" appears on <a href="http://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/"><span style="color:#990000;">Zócalo Public Square</span></a>, a Los Angeles-based but wide-ranging web site that serves as a platform for both online and in-person discussions of public and social affairs, including a series of <a href="http://zocalopublicsquare.org/upcoming.php?event_id=443"><span style="color:#000099;">upcoming events</span></a> with prominent speakers in their respective fields.<br /><br />My poem briefly questions the use of the expression "The wolf is at the door" to talk about debt. In short, wolves shouldn't be talked about that way. Accompanying the poem is a magnificent wolf photograph taken by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/dougbrown47/">Doug Brown</a>.<br /><br />I am by no means the only person in the arts to have an interest in wolves. Perhaps the most prominent advocate of wolves among artists is French pianist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helene_Grimaud"><span style="color:#990000;">Hélène Grimaud</span></a>, who co-founded the <a href="http://nywolf.org/typo3/intro.html">Wolf Conservation Center</a> and continues to spend time there.<br /><br />Watch this space for further news in the near future. I soon hope to make announcements on a couple of fronts.J.D. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12872696837674464350noreply@blogger.com0